U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,655,590 and 5,765,621 disclose, among other things, a generally hollow and elongated bottom storage rail for an extensible window blind assembly having a plurality of interconnected slats for receiving or storing unnecessary or excess slats of the blind assembly. The storage rail enables the blind assembly to be customized or adjusted readily to be used with windows of different heights without having to remove or disconnect the unnecessary slats from the rest of the blind assembly.
A blind assembly including the storage rail disclosed in the '590 and '621 patents is well suited for "inside window mounts," which are mounts of the blind assembly to a window frame having a bottom ledge such that the storage rail rests on the bottom ledge when the blind assembly is in its extended position. Although the blind assembly including the storage rail disclosed in these patents also works well for "outside window mounts," which are mounts of the blind assembly to or in connection with a window not having a window frame with a bottom ledge, it is possible that such outside window mounts can result in buckling of the slats stored within the storage rail. Depending on the weight of the storage rail and the stored slats, any such buckling may tend to occur due to the lack of support from a bottom ledge of a window frame supporting the storage rail.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a storage rail assembly that includes the benefits of the '590 and '621 patents, but that also prevents any buckling of slats stored within the storage rail.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a storage rail assembly that is particularly well suited for outside window mounts.